Process Stages

Overview

Each process is made up of stages that represent individual steps in a workflow. Stages have a type, a status, an optional assignee, and an optional due date. This article explains how each of these works and what actions are available at each point.

Stage Types

Every stage has a type that determines what kind of work it represents and which special actions are available:

• Standard — a general-purpose stage with no special behaviour. You mark it done with Complete
• Document Request — linked to a document request. When active, shows a Create Request button to generate the request, or a View Request button if one already exists. The stage completes itself when the request is approved
• Email — intended for sending an email (coming soon)
• Portal — intended for publishing content to the client portal (coming soon)
• Form — sends the client a form to fill in. If the template doesn't set a form, pick one from the list (forms for this client and forms for the whole practice) and click Send. Once the client submits it, click Review to check their answers. The stage completes itself when you approve the submission, so it has no Complete button
• Fetch Accounting Data — when the stage becomes active, it pulls the client's figures for the period from Xero or QuickBooks and shows what was fetched. If the client hasn't connected either, choose a spreadsheet and click Upload & bypass instead. If the fetch fails, click Retry fetch
• AI Year-End Pass — when the stage becomes active, AI works through the fetched figures and the client's documents and suggests adjustments, categorisations, document extractions, and reconciliation matches. Approve, edit, or reject each one. You can change the accounting standard, click Re-run AI after adding documents, and download an Excel pack (FRS 105 only). Click Mark review complete when you're done

The stage type appears as a badge next to the stage name in the timeline.

Stage Statuses

Each stage moves through the following statuses:

• Pending — the stage is waiting for earlier stages to be completed
• Active — the stage is ready to be worked on. Active stages display a pulsing indicator in the timeline
• Completed — the stage has been marked as done
• Skipped — the stage was bypassed. Skipped stages appear with strikethrough text

A pending stage with a scheduled start shows a padlock and a Locked badge, with the date it unlocks. It becomes active on its own once that date has passed and the stages before it are done.

Stage Actions

The action buttons that appear depend on the stage's current status.

Pending Stages

• Activate — jumps the process to this stage and makes it active straight away, even if it's locked. If you jump forward, the stages you pass over are marked as skipped. If you jump back, the stage you were on returns to pending so you can pick it up again later
• Assignee and Due Date — change who the stage is assigned to and when it's due, before it starts

Active Stages

• Complete — marks the stage as done and activates the next stage in the sequence
• Skip — bypasses the stage without completing it (only available if the stage is marked as skippable in the template)
• Assignee — opens a popover to reassign the stage to a different team member. If the stage is active, the new assignee is notified
• Due Date — opens a popover to change the stage's due date

If the stage has a type-specific action (such as Create Request for a Document Request stage), that button also appears.

Completed Stages

• Undo completion — makes the stage active again. If a later stage has already been completed, undo that one first. Later stages that were started or skipped go back to pending, and a completed process reopens

Skipped Stages

• Unskip — returns the stage to pending, so it still needs doing. Use Activate when you're ready to work on it
• Complete — marks the stage as completed directly from the skipped state (not available on Form stages)

Assignment

When a process is created, every stage is assigned to the same person. For a process started automatically from a client's key date, that's the person assigned to the key date, or the client's manager if nobody is. For a process you create yourself, it's the client's manager, or you if the client has no manager.

You can change the assignee at any time using the Assignee button on a pending or active stage. If the stage is active, the new assignee gets a notification.

Due Dates

A stage's due date is set in one of two ways, depending on the template:

• Fixed — a set number of days after the process start date, worked out when the process is created
• Rolling — a set number of days after the previous stage was completed or skipped, worked out when the stage becomes active

You can override a stage's due date at any time using the Due Date button on a pending or active stage.

Parallel Stages

Stages that share a parallel group run concurrently rather than sequentially. They appear together in a card labelled Parallel Group and can be completed in any order. The next sequential stage only activates once all stages in the parallel group are completed.

What's Next?

• Running a Process — manage an active process and work through its stages
• Creating a Process — start a new process from a template
• Process Templates — configure the templates that define stage sequences